FIA Presidential Elections: Motorsport UK Position
Broadcaster Steve Rider sat down with Chair of Motorsport UK, David Richards, and Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, Ben Cussons, to discuss the upcoming FIA Presidential Elections.
Held at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London, David Richards and Ben Cussons outline the positioning of their respective organisations ahead of the FIA Presidential Elections on 17 December.
View the video below:
Background
Motorsport UK is the national governing body of motor sport in the UK, it is a member of the Federation International de l’Automobile, (FIA).
The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) is also a member of the FIA representing the mobility interests in the UK and was one of the founding members of the FIA in 1904.
The FIA is the world governing body of motorsport and motoring comprised of 245 motoring and motor sport club members in 146 countries. The FIA is in a unique position to facilitate communication and the exchange of ideas among its 80 million members and represent the interests of these members with governments and in society at large.
The President of the FIA has wide-reaching executive powers and thus holds a critical position in the leadership of motorsport and motoring worldwide. The FIA statutes give a limit of three terms of four years. The incumbent, Jean Todt, has now reached this limit and triggered the need for a new President to be elected in December 2021.
There are two proposed candidate teams with supplied manifestos:
FIA for Members:
Presidential candidate: Mohammed Ben Sulayem
Deputy President for Mobility: Tim Shearman
Deputy President for Sport: Robert Reid
FIA for Members Your Manifesto for the Future
FIA for All:
Presidential candidate: Graham Stoker
Deputy President for Mobility: Thierry Willemarck:
Deputy President for Sport: Tom Kristensen
FIA for All Motorsport Motor Sport manifesto
FIA for All Mobility Mobility for All
The approach of Motorsport UK and the RAC
As closely aligned member organisations, it is deemed essential by each respective board to examine the requirements and views of the members across the sport and mobility landscape. This has been conducted in a completely transparent manner, with a publicly visible consultation to allow each team to present their manifesto and introduce the representatives of their teams.
Each respective board sought the counsel of its members through the committee structure based on the published manifestos of each team. The subjects were debated at board level and then aggregated into a set of questions covering all of the key aspects of the manifestos and the challenges facing the future of the sport.
Both candidate teams were invited to attend a session at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall in London on the 18 and 19 of October.
Representatives from the boards of the RAC and Motorsport UK were present and led by their respective chairs, Ben Cussons and David Richards, they spent two hours with each team examining the manifestos.
The output from these meetings formed the position of the boards on the allocation of their votes in December. The purpose of filming the sessions was to allow members to observe the responses of the candidate teams and provide feedback to the boards ahead of crucial meetings at the end of November.
The recording of the session with FIA for Members is also available from this link on the RAC website.
(Note: unfortunately, Motorsport UK and the RAC were instructed by FIA for All, the second candidate team, not to release the recording of the similar Q&A session with them).
We welcome any feedback from our members directly to the RAC and Motorsport UK: